Chicken Piccata with Pasta

another sunday night dinner. i kinda enjoy cooking on sunday's as my mom cooks monday through thursday for all of us. i'm so lucky! this is chicken piccata tossed with fettucine with a side of green salad all from my garden and baguette. this was the first time making piccata and i must say it came out really good! i sorta follow recipes, but when you taste the outcome it doesn't seem to taste correct, so you have to add what you think might work. top everything with a glass of red wine and dinner is complete! cheers!

Ahi Belly Nitsuke and Tempura

i have not blogged in such a loooong time. sunday night dinner, i decided to make ahi belly nitsuke and shrimp and vegetable tempura. sauce for the nitsuke came out light and tasty just how we like it. i just wish the fish was soaked more so that the inside had more taste, but i guess that's why the sauce is there. first time making it and it came out pretty good! i can't seem to get a good recipe for tempura batter. so i got lazy and bought the box mix. it looks good, but it doesn't stay crisp. still an awesome dinner everyone enjoyed! cheers!

Hot Pot Heaven

a friend of mine has always told me to try these hot pot places and only now got the chance to try it since we didn't have the kids. we went to this new place in mccully shopping center called hot pot heaven. they have 13 different broths to choose from, thai, kim chee, mushroom, herbal, beef, vegetarian, etc. we decided to get the thai and the kim chee and my hubby got the kim chee at a spicyness of 10. the thai kinda tasted like tom yum soup which i absolutely love! you pick your choice of meat, then you go to the refrigerator to grab whatever plates of additions to put in the hot pot. they have vegetables, seafood, noodles and dumplings. they charge you on the color of the plates. the broths for lunch are 1/2 off the dinner price and they give free refills on the broths. they also have an area with all these different sauces. so good!!!! we were extremely happy and sooooo satisfied and most of all it's healthy! i give this place 5 stars! cheers!

Izakaya Nonbei

i've always wanted to try this restaurant as i LOVE okinawan food. ama ebi sushi. very good quality and my husband thinks that was his best ama ebi head. can't say i've had better as they all pretty much are the same.
ikura sushi. not the kind of ikura i like as they have mixed this one in this sauce i don't care for. i prefer regular ikura nothing fancy, but it has to be of very good quality.
this is mozuku and yama imo. both things i love! it seems to me that i love slimy things. it was placed in a ponzu sauce. very refreshing and yummy!
this is teba shio. simple dish, no fail, except when they brought it to us, there was blood on the dish, so obviously it wasn't cooked thoroughly. they took it back and reheated it.
this is the kurobuta kakuni. slowly simmered pork belly in a sweet shoyu sake sauce with a spinach ball. the meat literally melted in your mouth.

echigo beer always good with everything! what more can i say?
this is gyu tataki. seared sliced beef served cold over a bed of sliced onions and green salad topped with garlic chips. the sauce was gingered ponzu. a little overwhelming which made the dish somewhat salty. or maybe just too much sauce?

lastly, i couldn't resist...zenzai. what a great way to end a dinner. just the right amount of sweetness, mochi was very soft and overall very good.

Ono's Hawaiian Food

they probably have the best hawaiian food in town. always consistent from back in the day, although their prices have gone up considerably. i remember paying only like $9 for a kalua pig plate and now it's $14. i ordered the lau lau/kalua pig plate just because i wanted both although i had a hard time eating all of it. that's okay, the kids helped me. i wish they put butterfish in the lau lau cause i like the saltiness of the fish. the kalua pig is sooo good, tasty and moist. i love the maui onions with rock salt and the pipikaula. yum! lomi lomi salmon could have been a little saltier. i always enjoy eating here although it's not often enough. always satisfied, enjoy! cheers!

Okonomiyaki Chibo

the first time i went to this restaurant was for a friend's birthday and i was quite impressed. i recently went back for another friend's birthday and was equally impressed. my two friends had the garlic chicken. they grilled the chicken along with mushrooms and zucchini and slivered garlic pieces. they also give you a dipping sauce of ponzu and tsuri daikon. a complete meal comes with salad, rice, miso soup and pickled vegetables. what a great deal for around $13.00. i had okonomiyaki with tako and beef. it was cooked perfectly with just the right amount of sauces on top. very filling, for the price of around $10.00.

i had to add another picture of their fried ahi. i asked for it medium and sure enough it came out just that way. the sauce was a ponzu mixture and underneath was baby bok choy. the fish is topped with a tomato salsa mixture. very good! if you go for dinner the prices almost double for the same thing! imagine that. aside from the interesting conversation in the booth next to us, this place is a thumbs up! enjoy eating out sometimes. cheers!

The Mermaid Bar

i've always wanted to try this place in neiman marcus, but never really had the chance to as they don't really cater to children. i finally got the chance to go with a couple of work friends for one of their birthdays. it's a very small place, not much seating with made to order salads, sandwiches and soups. i love soup and sandwich kinda places. the first thing we ordered was the soup of the day, cream of crab soup. very delicious, it reminded of of cream of mushroom soup. it wasn't as rich as you may think, although we were wondering where the crab was in all of it. then i ordered the mediterranean sandwich. it was shaved chicken, arugula, hau’ula tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pesto aïoli on ciabatta. it was really good, the chicken, very moist and the pesto aioli was a perfect match. the sides were potato chips, pickle spear and homemade cole slaw. my friend ordered the grilled turkey sandwich which we had split. it wasn't as good as the mediterranean. turkey was also moist, with grilled onions and cheese on toasted bread. my other friend ordered the greek salad. i didn't try it, but she said it was good. the only thing i thought was a little weird for greek salad was the salmon topping. the one side of the menu you can choose your own made to order salad. you choose your green and you can pick up to 7 toppings. i will definitely have to try that next time. this place sorta reminds me of the downstairs neiman marcus cafe. same type of food. 4 stars. enjoy. cheers!